Solano awarded $10.6 million - Nearly 345 affordable homes and a total injection of $35 million into the local economy could result from the investmen

Article Last Updated: 5/21/2005 07:35 AM

Solano awarded $10.6 million

By Reporter Staff

TheReporter.Com

Solano County has been awarded $10.6 million from a 2002 voter-approved bond to finance affordable housing, affordable housing advocates announced this week.

Nearly 345 affordable homes and a total injection of $35 million into the local economy could result from the investment, according to the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California, an advocacy group.

"Nowhere in the Bay Area is the supply meeting the demand for real affordable homes," said Dianne Spaulding, executive director of the association. "The market has been dominated by the production of large, expensive homes."

Between 1999 and 2003, the association cites, the Bay Area construction industry built more than 100,000 homes for people earning more than $100,000 a year.
Meanwhile, only 28,000 homes were built for people earning less, such as teachers, nurses and firefighters.

Proposition 46, the voter approved housing bond passed in 2002, is helping to do what the market is not, said advocates.

"Solano County is finally able to make up the gap created by a market that was producing twice as many market-rate homes as affordable ones," said Merlin Wedepohl, with the Solano Housing Coalition.

Proposition 46 a $2.1 billion housing bond, passed voter muster in 2002 by a 57.5 percent margin.